My love for the Man of Steel, literally

An intimate story.

Growing up, my childhood was dominated by the man himself, Superman. I idolized him in many ways that friends, family, and even the general public thought were unhealthy for a normal 8 year old. It started at an early age when my dad introduced me to Superman, the 1978 movie staring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, and Margot Kidder.

Superman possesses extraordinary powers, traditionally described as "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". Who didn’t like that?

Although, many of my classmates during this time like Spiderman and Batman, I remained super-loyal to Superman. I had his super-cool “J” hair style, his steel-tin lunch box, and occasionally seen sporting a pair of tighty-whities of the “S” shield logo. And yes, I rock’d them quite well. ;)

I remembered an instance where my lunch box was missing and I had good suspicions on who might have taken it. I I don’t recall his name, but for the sake of this story, we’re going to call him Lex. Lex was a bad kid, a villain if you will. He was never nice to anyone. He didn’t share his toys or his comics. During recess, he would always pick fights- spitting spit wads at kids, pushing them around for their lunch money, and talking fertilizer wherever he went. And he’d always had a thing for me. The reasons were unknown. All I could think of was jealously.

The day my lunch box was stolen was probably one of traumatic days of my youth. It was my birthday and my parents had gotten me my first metal lunch box. I wanted to show and share it on our “Share and Tell” Fridays. Mrs. Wingett, my teacher had every student in her class share stories about their birthdays and what they have gotten. I had many Superman gifts from families and friends; one of things I was able to bring was my metal lunch box. I couldn’t bring the Nintendo or else I would. Later that day, when the final bell rang, everyone had gathered their backpacks and lunch boxes to go home, except me. As soon as I got to the door where all the things were kept, I noticed my lunch box was missing. Who would steal my “Man of Steel” lunch box, I thought??? I asked the teacher and she didn’t know.

While waiting for my parents to pick me up from school, I saw my lunch box from a distance. LEX!!!! I screamed as he ran away. My parents knew how much I loved that lunch box, so they called the school’s principle. And justice was done. Lex apologized and said he had found it after school somewhere. The battle against Lex was won, but the war and fueled ran on.

This post was written by:
stan